Tk 300cr released for stock investors
The central bank has released the second instalment of the government's Tk 900 crore refinancing scheme for stock investors affected by the market crash in early 2011.
The fund's manager, the state-run Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, will now start disbursing the fund amounting to Tk 300 crore, said its Managing Director Md Fayekuzzaman.
The third and final instalment of Tk 300 crore will be released after utilisation of the second instalment.
Part of the government's compensation package for the ailing stockmarket, the refinance scheme is open to retail investors whose stockmarket exposure was lower than Tk 10 lakh between January 2009 and November 2011.
The ICB receives the fund from Bangladesh Bank at 5 percent interest and lends it to merchant banks and stockbrokers at 7 percent.
The merchant banks and the stockbrokers then disburse the fund to retail investors at a 9 percent interest rate, according to the guideline of the refinance scheme.
The borrowers will have to repay the loans every three months and should give corporate guarantee against the loans to the ICB, who will deposit the received amount to the refinance fund.
The regulator will have the authority to cancel licences of merchant banks and stockbrokers if they fail to repay the loans in time, according to the guideline.
A surveillance panel, comprising representatives from the central bank, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission and the ICB, is responsible for monitoring the scheme's operations and submitting a report to the finance ministry every quarter.
From the first instalment, the ICB disbursed Tk 299.82 crore to 10,568 affected investors through 11 merchant banks and four stockbrokers, said Saifur Rahman, a member of the committee.
The ICB also sanctioned Tk 39.82 crore to 1,138 retail investors until January 7 through nine merchant banks and stockbrokers. The amount will be credited from the second instalment, he said.
The documentation for Tk 83.82 crore loans to 2,738 investors through 12 merchant banks and stockbrokers has also been completed, said Rahman, also an executive director of BSEC.
Comments